6 tech tools to bring out the A student in you

By Alice Truong, Special for USA TODAY

For the students out there, the closing of summer means a change of scenery, from beach and bonfires to classrooms and textbooks. To ready yourself into study mode, we're highlighting six tech products to bring out the A student in you.

I.R.I.S.

The IRISscan portable scanner can capture paper documents without the use of a computer.

The IRISscan portable scanner can capture paper documents without the use of a computer.

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Readfa.st gamifies text to increase reading speeds

Even the most prepared sometimes get caught off guard by exams and quizzes. Key to cramming is reading quickly, and readfa.st is a fun bookmarklet to help you hone the skill.

Here's how it works: After you sign up for an account with readfa.st, either with Facebook Connect or your email address, you can take a series of optional quizzes to determine your word-per-minute speed and comprehension. Whenever you're reading something on the Web, pressing the bookmarklet strips the text from the page and brings it to readfa.st's platform. There, the website gamifies the copy. As you're reading, the words you've already digested fade into the background while new words come into focus. The point isn't just to achieve a high word-per-minute speed but also increase comprehension, so there are also keyboard commands to pause, quicken or slow down the pace as well. If your reading material isn't available online, you can also paste text into readfa.st instead of using the bookmarklet.

The service isn't perfect — sometimes, there's difficulty stripping text from certain websites — but it is free, so no complaints coming from me.

SoundGecko lets you listen to reading material

Taking an opposite approach, SoundGecko is a text-to-audio service that lets you listen to reading material on the go. When you find an article online you want to listen to, you can email the article to SoundGecko or use a Chrome browser extension to convert the text to speech. Then, standby a few seconds and an email with a link to the audio file, along with runtime and word count information, is sent to you. A summary also tells you how much time you saved by listening with SoundGecko.

It's fine to use the Chrome extension without registering for an account, but registering opens up a host of useful features, such as the ability to listen to your playlist from its free iPhone app and sync audio files to other devices with Dropbox and Google Drive. SoundGecko is free, but a pro version with more features is expected to come soon.

Transcribe spoken word with Dictation

Dictation is another handy Chrome extension for the classroom. Built by Amit Agarwal, founder of the Digital Inspiration blog, Dictation transcribes long narrated sentences using the browser's built-in speech recognition. Chrome already offers voice-to-speech functionality on the Web, but it is available only to certain sites. This app lets you use it on demand — wherever, whenever.

You guide the voice recognition with certain commands, such as "new line," "question mark" or "delete everything." (Just don't forget to copy and paste the text to a new location before clearing the text.) If there are mistakes in the transcription, all you have to do is click on the incorrect word to edit it.

Duolingo crowdsources language learning

Learning a foreign language? Duolingo is an online service that will reinforce your budding language skills. Currently, it has lessons for French, Spanish and German learners, focusing on vocabulary review and usage.

The idea behind Duolingo is to provide a free educational tool to help break down the language barrier that exists on the Web. As a free service without ads, Duolingo, which launched earlier this summer, relies on the community to translate the Web. This means novice speakers are tasked with beginning vocabulary while advanced speakers can help translate more complex sentences. When you come across vocabulary you don't recognize, hover over the word and you can see crowdsourced translations. The service will take note of vocabulary you're learning to help you understand and memorize those words.

LearnSmart helps reinforce textbook materials

In early August, McGraw-Hill announced it would make LearnSmart, a digital tutor of sorts, available directly for students to purchase. In the past, the service was available for universities and professors to use class-wide.

Since McGraw-Hill's textbooks are widely used in classrooms, the companion app is able to help students learn course materials while personalizing content based on their progress. If your professor is the type to go by the book, this might be a worthwhile investment to know which topics to focus on. (However, recalling my days as a cash-strapped student, I find it hard to justify forking over more money on top of textbooks' already insane sticker prices.)

The publisher says the adaptive learning technology has proven to help students move up a full letter grade. LearnSmart begins at $24.99 a semester.

IRIScan is a portable scanner for bookworms

The IRIScan Book 2 will certainly please library dwellers and bookworms. The portable standalone scanner can capture paper documents on the go without the use of a computer. This will come in handy for thesis writers who have to deal with primary documents and large volumes that can't be checked out from the library.

The scanner works like a wand. You slowly move the scanner across the page, and it saves the file — in black and white or color, 600 or 300 dpi — to the included microSD card. While the device itself is plug and play, there is bundled software that can process the scans into editable and searchable documents (PDF, Word, Excel and more) thanks to its optical character recognition technology.

The IRIScan Book 2 comes in two models: a basic AA-battery powered version for $99 and an executive one with a rechargeable battery and Bluetooth (to send files wirelessly to your computer or mobile device) for $129.

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